Make Glass Beads From Broken Bottles (+video)

Just use any cheap wire you can get at a hardware or farm store, except make sure it's not galvanized because heating zinc is a good way to poison yourself.

When it's red hot, you can pull on the ends to stretch it.

Yes, large hole beads can be hard to find...
You might have some success (if you don't get around to making your own!)
by searching for Troll, Pandora, or Biagi beads, or their knockoffs.
(they're specifically made large hole beads, the holes go from 3.5 mm to 5 mm, fits on most cording & chain,
Good Luck!

Thank you for the advice! I will look for those.

another word for wires with beads stuck directly to them are 'hair pins.' 

for those who want something dressier than a #2 pencil... 

  B^) 

Cool.  Now I will.  I'll let you know.  Now when I go to use the plaster just for the beads, can I use regular plaster of paris?  Thanks again,
Mike

It sounds to me like it might be a good idea to make your plaster covered rods late at night, and use them the following day after a good night's sleep.

what if you wanted to glass to coat or stick to other kinds of metals as a form of decoration?
how does the glass stick to stainless steel or aluminum? or is the melting of point of aluminum lower then glass?
and does this affect the color of glass when it sticks to metal?
does the glass bond to the metal because the metal is porous and the glass fills in the pores? or does something else cause the glass to bond to the metal?

Maybe real gold leaf would work? Fake gold leaf is just aluminum and the color might burn off.

I have done some guilding with real gold leaf. Naturally, it is more expensive than the fake, but you get what you pay for. Some red glass has traces of gold in it.

Definitely. Aluminum is toxic. I got rid of an aluminum sauce pan after eating some macaroni out of it that tasted metallic.

eep! I just realised that your flame heating your beadrelease! big no no. small pockets of superheated watervapour often become trapped under the brittle heated release and pop off unexpectedly. if it hits an eye your in big trouble. it also makes the bead release unstable and prone to cracking and flaking off as you work the glass.

:)

this is my fav bead release, which you can make yourself for about $10 for 3kg

http://www.glassline.net/forums/showthread.php?p=728

What would you suggest? instead of heating the bead release he should.....? I'm interested in your answer.
Art

yep, let it air dry if you can. just putting it into the flame like that will cause problems, even flame dry release. ussually you have all of your mandrels (stainless steel rods) set up with air dried bead release all ready to go. you can drill a wooden block with appropriate sized holes, dip your release and put it in the drying block. come back in an hour or so, or even a day.

If you are going to flame dry, even with flame dry release, you hold the mandrel high over the flame so that it gently warms the release, turning the mandrel constantly so that you get even heating. the process takes only a minute more and you get much sturdier release and not much chance of super heated water vapour popping the release onto you.

it's important to have a sturdy release so that if you want to start doing things like making flowers in the glass, which involves a lot of dot work and some pushing with a tungsten pick, you don't have the release crack and the bead forever sticking to the mandrel.

You could let the bead release dry for a few hours before using it.

(Psst...lots of bead releases are now flame ready)
Fireworks, Bucket O Mud, and Fosterfire all have "wet to torch" products.
However, it's not "stick it in the fire" ready, you've got to slowly burn off the water & vapor, or yes, you'll have the problem mentioned above.
No different than introducing the glass too fast.  Pop.  Ouch.
:(

This is a great tip to include in your introduction. 

The videos are great in demonstrating how long it takes to do each step, and how much time the glass should spend in the flame at each stage.